The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for prioritizing the use of dedicated host ports when N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is enabled in a storage controller.
N-Port ID Virtualization (NM) is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) T11 standard that describes how multiple Fibre Channel (FC) node port (N-Port) IDs may share a single physical N-Port using several virtual worldwide port names (WWPNs). Sharing a single physical N-Port using several virtual WWPNs eases hardware requirements in Storage Area Network (SAN) design, especially where virtual SANs are utilized. When physical N-Ports are owned by a storage controller, each physical N-Port may be used for multiple purposes, such as a target for host input/output (I/O), an initiator of I/O to back-end storage devices, to handle communication between nodes in the storage controller, or the like.